Detroit News veterans all know Massimo as an ardent Darko, Memo and Delfino (most things European basketball oriented) fan. He's in Italy and during the summer usually has some interesting offseason reports. I wish I had saved his gem about Memo from last year.

Some folks might not like what he has to say but I have never had reason to believe he was being less than honest.

http://info.detnews.com/pistons/lettersindex.cfm
Mon. 07/24/06 06:53 AM
Why Darko Milicic is no more a Piston

On Saturady I attended the game Italy played vs Serbia Montenegro in the Gianatti tournament in Bormio featuring Italy, SCG, Greece and Canada.

Darko played like 28 minutes and had an average game (best scorer of the game with 17 point but very low %, he was like 2 for 16) but what I saw was pretty enteresting.

He started the game strong with 4 rebounds, one block, one spectacular assist (a touch pass) and a basket on a nice jumper in few minutes then he lost his head for a silly thing: he was fouled two times under the basket but no whistle so Darko erupted for a technical foul and, before leaving the court boiling, he kicked one of the courtside sponsors.

The crowd (a lot of kids with families)booed him and, when he came back in the second half, he got booed every time he touched the ball and, for every miss, people roared louder than when Italy scored a basket...

I saw that he made the 'Serbian three fingers salute' torward the fans (that doesn't mean three points, but it's more like a provocation) every time he hit a three point shot (two times, he was 2/3) while laughting at his opponents at the same time.

Well, the point is that the man is 21 years old but he seems more like a 12 years old kid... He tried hard to dunk the ball to make people shut up but one time was blocked by an Italian player, while the other the shot was rejected by the rim in traffic... I can understand it wasn't the World Championships Final but his behavior was unprofessional and silly to say the least...

He was having fun, laughting but he wasn't able to translate his willingess to take over the game into great basketball.

That said, before losing his head for nothing and starting his personal war with the fans, he played great and you could see why was the 2# pick in the 2003 draft: he's fluid like a guard, he has very soft hands (he scores FT without moving the net...)and has a tremendous reach with his long arms.

Too bad Darko is still a big kid, very immature and not ready for a team like Detroit that needs immediate help and proven players. They just didn't want to wait for him so long: no question he will be a great player in this league but he still needs a couple of years to mature as a person before as a player.

Massimo, Mandello del Lario (LC), ITALY

12 year old sounds about right.:ohwell:

It's nice to hear that he was enjoying himself. I was afraid that after the nightmare here in Detroit, with his confidence shattered by Garbage Time, he might sour on basketball forever.

Great stuff Masssimo. I trust the Massimo viewpoint. He has a Darko bias but gives us a unique viewpoint.

Isn't this description pretty much what we observed during Darko's days in Detroit? Athletic ability marred by emotional instability? Same old story. Same old Darko.

There are really high expectations for him in Europe. I wonder though how much the language barrier may have contributed to both his growth in America, his issues with the Pistons, and his draft position.

Speaking a language "broken" style (in my experience) really doesn't allow you to express yourself effectively. And the less you can express, the less likely you are to communicate.

He really is a 'Serbian Gangstar'....He's a Euro Sheed.

I'm pretty sure bball jay would dismiss this as liberal media propaganda. No need to believe it yet.

Last year, I really looked forward to Massimo's reports. Being of like mind, I never look upon his reports as 'biased' :ohwell: .

I will be looking for them again this year.

Yes, although I have been and still am a fan of DMC, I have never been one who believes that he has no faults. This one, I believe he may have picked up from Sheed and a couple
of others.

I have always believed that when you are 'put-apon', it is so childish to show that it is getting through to you. Just raise your level of play and get back at them in that way.

I hoped that when I saw he did not play yesterday in the defeat of Canada, it was because the coach sat him down for a game to show his displeasure. Nip it in the bud!

I am looking forward to the slightly possible event that the Serbian team will meet the USA in the finals. Would it not be great to see that deep draft represented so well on the floor at the same time: Dwayne, LeBron, Carmelo, Bosh, and Darko.

I cannot wait :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: !!!

Nice avatar lazy! Looks a lot like Jerry West! ;)


http://www.pistonsforum.com/images/picdump/micro-0054_072406.pnghttp://www.uhlsport.com/media/data/5232-media.gif

Lazy. You are saying that Darko picked up his attitude problems from Sheed? That's another headscratcher for me. How would you come up with a theory like that and upon what facts do you base this theory?

I think some of you Darko guys just pull these theories out of thin air because they are convenient to your internal Darko myth. I believe the facts before my eyes...you create them.

Agreed, bills. Before Detroit ever drafted Darko, there were stories from Serbia about his attitude. On the whole I think he did a good job staying patient during three difficult seasons with the Pistons, but he didn't use the learning opportunities presented to him. The biggest barrier to his success seems to be from the neck up.

The biggest barrier to his success seems to be from the neck up.

I have a theory about that!

OK, bills, I guess it is not a corruption of the thread if I take up space answering you.

I will ask you, have you ever seen Sheed play?

Sheed comes to play about every other game and that is what some of you accuse Darko of doing. Only diff was that he did it during garbage time and Sheed does it during real game time.

No other Piston, past or present, comes to mind (maybe I am having another senior moment) who puts on such a show and earns so many technical fouls, when he disagrees with a call. And truthfully, when they are replayed, the ref was correct 90% of the time.

Sheed is very selfish in certain of his actions, which is another thing you bashers accuse DMC of. Coming to mind are these mindless predictions which put pressure on his team, and then he does nothing to back them up. Headlines but no backup.

He drifts around the perimeter and jacks up treys, like you accuse DMC of doing. If you see Darko play for Orlando, he gets a lot of points and assists inside.

Darko does not get rebounds partly because, like Sheed, he plays with another great rebounder, and he is out of position sometimes because he is blocking or alteriong the shot.

Does any of this sound familiar?

What bothers me the most about this post is that I like Sheed. However, I beleieve that down the road, we will wish we kept DMC and sent Sheed to Orlando.

Let me remind you that I have gone on record plenty of times when I believed that Darko was not putting out or when he did what I did not like. It is very different from the bashers who go out of their way constantly to throw rocks at him, even when the thread is about other things.

Lazy, I understand your points about Rasheed. However I just think it's a jump in logic to say that ...

Rasheed has showed signs of bad attitude....whining at refs, taking plays off etc.

Darko had a bad attitude.


Therefore Darko inherited his bad attitude from Sheed.


I can't make that connection...especially when Rasheed is an established elite player in this League who has earned the right to fuss a bit.

Sheed may have influenced him in more ways than one.
Say what you want about "The Crab" but they won't take BS!
But this is not the place for him to go it alone. [private]

blaming sheed for darko's attitude problems is ludicrious.

I don't notice the Darko fans giving Ben credit for teaching Darko to block shots.

I am so glad Darko is not a Piston anymore. I'd rather Nazr anyday. That ain't saying much, either.

Some of our posters really like to zero in on what they 'think' people say and answer only a point out of several.

I said that I thought he might have picked up some of his cry-baby stuff from Sheed and some others. "And some others" and "might have". Man, if you think a teenager does not pick up traits from the "prime time player" as you said, who would he pick things up from.

I believe that I have held through the years that playing and learning from Ben, Sheed, Elden, Memo, etc helped him become the player he will be, and soon.

Bills, exactly what "emotional instability" are you talking about? Seems he has showed quite a lot of emotional stability in putting up with the lack of a chance to do what he was hired to do, for so long.

RM, lets see if you still feel the same way next year this time, you know, the part about rather having Nazr than Darko as a Piston.

I have kept from posting for quite a while now because I knew we would get drawn back into this stuff. Neither of us is going to change anyone's opinion, so I am going to quit. Wewill let DMC speak for himself, THIS YEAR.

Everybody knows how I feel and as Bill O'Reilly says, you can have the last word.

Lazy,

Point taken. My post sounds harsher towards you than I intended, i should add. sorry.

I think the Delfino/Darko thing has me ticked off in general. I hate to see our picks languish and give us nothing in terms of performance. And I hate when they contribute little on the court then complain about PT.

I could be wrong about Darko, but I still don't like him one bit.

Robert Michael, I understand and there is no need to apologize. Darko is a real flash point on the Detroit forums, and I get harsh sometimes, too. I just have to resist jumping to the defense of these millionaires, I guess.

Actually, I think it is funny, when I think about it. All these diverse opinions we all hold and they all boil down to "0" because nobody but us really pays attention to them. I wouldn't mind having quite a few of the posters on these forums as friends because we are all interested and not shy about voicing our opinions.

I have met only one of the posters and went to his home to watch a Piston game while I was out of town.

You know what, even though we don't agree on some things, I found him to be a pretty nice person, and having a number of the same interests as I hold.

Imagine that !!

Speaking of Darko.... Is he on 'roids?

http://www.basketground.it/public/images/pagine/8836/Milicicschiaccia4006001153129423210.jpg

No, he's just not a teenager any more. Darko's frame always indicated he'd be a monster once he started filling out.

Boy, it would be nice to have a big cneter with a soft touch. Too bad Darko was so lazy.

Lazy,

At some point Joe and the coaches need to get on the same page regarding our young players. I think we can all agree on that.

I'd like to see us drafting players like Prince- 3 or 4 years in college at a Big Program with plenty of success in NCAA tourneys. Then play them and let them make a few mistakes.

I agree about guys on this board. I find this board to have quite a collection of smart Piston fans who are passionate enough to disagree about almost anything. And because there is some level of accountability (not like detnews) the discussions stay civil if not down right friendly.

I live in L.A., so I don't have a ton of local Piston fans to shoot the smack with. This board is very good for out-of-towners like me. I've never met anybody off the board, but I am sure most are very cool. Funny how something like a sports team can be a bridge to meeting people.

peace.

I'm glad to see Darko has an attitude, bet it helps him next season. Unfortunately, our coaches refuse to play anyone who doesn't kiss up them. Kobe, Sheed, Harrington, Bonzi, Carmelo, AI, Big Nook, The Worm, Artest, White Chocolate, Sprewell, Charles Oakley, Nate Robinson, and the list goes on, and on, on all had attitudes.

This aint no choir league, you want "nice" guys on the team, prepare to finish last.

BTW, anyone who ever questioned Darko's work effort should check out those guns.

BTW, anyone who ever questioned Darko's work effort should check out those guns.

Since you mentioned that darko pic, is it just me, or does it look like he's starring directly at the basketball and telling it to shut up? :der:

Jammertime, I would settle for the Pistons winning 62 and the Bulls 26, or even 63 and 36. Just keep them out of the playoffs.

Robert Michael, I think the Pistons will not get too many of the players you are looking for, and for a real good reason. They will not have bad enough season records to get that high in the draft. Hope they get lucky though and match the coaches with the players.

And itn't it difficult to be a fan of a team that is far away. You never get to see enough games and it is hard to keep up with the day to day goings on without forums like this one.

I think that is why people a lot of times root for the local teams. It is easier. I have always bee stubborn though. I was born and raised in Ohio and rooted for the Reds and Dayton U and Ohio State, but when OSU started crowding out the Dayton Flyers from the local sports pages, I started rooting for MSU. In 1966, we moved to Michigan for a great job and I started rooting for Ohio State because it was so much fun to argue with the guys here in MI about UM and MSU against OSU.

But since the Cincinnati Royals went belly-up, I started following the Pistons a couple of years after they came up from Fort Wayne. Now, I follow the Pistons but have to also follow the Magic and Jazz, for obvious reasons.

I guess that is more than you wanted to know about me. Sorry :eyebrows: !!

i'm in FL right now on vacation. orlando's a few hours away but we're goin there tomorrow to universal studios. we'll probably see darko having ice cream and getting a tan at the park, so i'll be sure to take pictures.

I implore you guys to rethink those Sheed comparisons and try to see the difference.

Unfortunatly raw talent is not always enough. There are a lot of other factors in the mental aspect of how players are and approach the game. Some have it, some learn it, and some never get it.

Dumars was faced with having to either extend him this summer or risk losing him next. All this with an unsure player. Besides we know how much they value frugaliy at the Palace.

My main knock all along was not selecting a safer bet with the #2. When you only get one every decade you should not take it to the roulette table.

To be frank, who is to say that Darko's last experiences in Detroit did not go south due to preliminary contract talks?

His agent is a heavy hitter, and it seems to me quite obvious Detroit was not going to give him the opportunity last season to showcase himself for his impending FA.

I don't buy that at all, and it's hardly "obvious". What seemed obvious to me was that, beginning with training camp, the Pistons had every intention of playing Darko as much as his play would justify, that Darko showed some early spark, then tailed off. On another team, perhaps, they would have continued throwing him out there, and maybe the Pistons should have. But this obviously is a kid, unlike a LeBron James or Carmelo Anthony, who doesn't have the emotional maturity to blossom in the NBA at age 20, 21, whatever, regardless of his innate basketball skills.

What I think time will eventually show is that Darko is a pretty solid NBA talent, and that the mistake made by the Pistons wasn't so much in judging his basketball talent as his emotional (im)maturity.

Cwolfson, that did not seem obvious to me, though. What I saw was a kid who played and got himself ready and played very well in Europe and in the Pre-Season. Despite that, the Pistons went out and got another big "to play the important minutes and the post season". Some show of confidence in Darko.

Darko played well, well into the early season, until the New York game. He was nervous playing for his old nemesis, or whatever, but he had a lousy game. After that, he was on the bench without playing. Even though he played very, very well in the second Knicks game, in limited minutes, he never got further PT to any extent.

Only then did his spark disappear. I realize that our viewpoints are diametrically opposed and we see the same things very differently.

Who knows.

Instead of debating Darko. If he was ineligible in 03 or if Dumars went more for the sure thing our starting frontcourt right now would be very different. Memo and Bosh would be the starters.

Use your imagination. If we drafted Bosh we would have started 04 with Ben, Memo, Bosh and Camb. Probably never would have traded for Sheed, I am pretty sure we would not have. Would never have signed Dyess. Would have had the cap space to match Utah's offer and keep Okur. Even losing Ben this summer we would be giving Bosh an extension and actually had enough money left over so re-signing Billups next summer would not be a problem.

Would be have still won it in 04? Hard to say. May have won it instead in 05 or 06 and would have a very young and respectable front court right now. We would not be hoping for one of these SL refugees to step up. The future would be a heck of a lot brighter than what it is now.

So thats why I am not so hot on constantly revisiting Darko as if we had no other choice or no other options with #2. That pick was wasted.

Only satisfaction we can get at this point is if Orlando has to fork over a high pick and send Darko packing at the same time.

i'm in FL right now on vacation. orlando's a few hours away but we're goin there tomorrow to universal studios. we'll probably see darko having ice cream and getting a tan at the park, so i'll be sure to take pictures.
darko is busting his butt playing for national team for a whole month now (and will play for another month too) just like dwight howard is playing for usa

people like you are the ones that make stupid things...

darko is busting his butt playing for national team for a whole month now (and will play for another month too) just like dwight howard is playing for usa

people like you are the ones that make stupid things...

Hahahaha, Darko? Is that you? You vant to ride in the firetruck?

This discussion has run it's course.